Khamsa
"When around him everything has become silent, when the soul comes to be alone in the whole world, then the heavens open. Then he receives the accolade of knighthood that ennobles him for an eternity. All knights must bleed. Blood is the seal of our devotion. Knighthood lies above eternity; it doesn’t live off fame, but rather deeds." -Khamsa History Khamsa’s real name is Arthur Galahad, and he is the bastard son of Emperor Clovis Coralis and the prostitute Delilah Galahad. When Delilah discovered she was pregnant with the emperor’s son, she went into hiding in fear that if he found out, he would have them killed. When Delilah birthed Arthur, he was mute, grew up in poverty, and she hid his true identity. Arthur, being handicapped and feeble in stature, turned to begging to make ends meet, and at the age of thirty his mother fell gravely ill. Unfortunately she succumbed to her sickness, but she revealed to Arthur his true identity before she took her final breath. This sent Arthur into a deep depression where he silently ruminated on life and what it meant to be a beggar prince for five years. One night in a dark alley where Arthur was posted, he was approached by an old and mysterious hooded figure. The old man spoke gently yet whimsically and asked Arthur if he wanted immense power to use in whatever way he saw fit. Arthur thought this a silly question, but something about the old man made him acknowledge his question in seriousness. Arthur broke into tears and nodded his head to the old man, and the old man grasped Arthur’s head and he felt a surge of energy flow into him and simultaneously the old man said aloud “let us crown a beggar prince”, and then the old man vanished in an instant. Arthur with his newfound power created a new identity, he called himself Khamsa and and you know what he stands for. But there was no “Great Old One” at least in the way Khamsa says and his name and motives are the creation of himself, not divine instruction. Personality Being of royalty and of poverty, Khamsa realized that power is not inherent in any man, but a fictitious and futile attempt to play god that could disappear in an instant. He thinks that power is just a cruel way for mankind to oppress one another, and that for this mankind must be punished, and that the only true power exists in the inexplicable, what he calls god, since he believes his power is from a divine source. Arthur stills hides his true identity from the world, and he tells all his followers that he is blessed by the “Great Old One”, and he vehemently sticks to his story claiming that he was born on that blessed night. He doesn’t care about money, sex, clothing, or food, but he just wants to watch the powerful man be put down by those with nothing. His motives are a result of his anger against those with what he deserved yet never had, and it’s been festering in his heart for his entire life. Arthur is incredibly intelligent and a great leader, but his actions are based in anger, but this does not mean that Arthur cannot change. Leadership Style Khamsa was a short-lived Philosopher-King, abdicating his position after his first Holy Council meeting. Nonetheless, had he remained on the throne, it seemed likely that he would not have ruled as his namesake and successor did. Khamsa was a fair-minded leader, rewarding loyalty and showing lenience to real and potential enemies. A novice to the political world, he allowed his coterie of advisers to form without much guidance on his part, and refrained from making any drastic changes to Alba Coralis. Khamsa never fully controlled his homeland, and his short tenure as its monarch was mostly a referendum on his character and fitness for rule. Ultimately, Khamsa found the concept of rule ethically wrong, and abandoned his throne to Prince Ramander. He would grow to regret this decision, but knew that if he could go back in time, he would have made the same choice again and again. War of the Philosopher-Kings Khamsa was present at the very heart of the events that sparked the war. A prisoner in Sunken City, he was among the captives rescued by the Janissaries, and fought with King Raine on the shores of the Final Empire. He would go on to ally with Prince Ramander of Oranor to meddle with the future of Alba Coralis. Invoking his right as the son of Clovis Coralis, Khamsa would claim the throne and shatter the alliance with Nadezhda. In doing so, he sparked the events that led to the northern war, but likely saved the southeast nations from a brutal conquest by the forces of Abi Eodauga. Khamsa would resurface in New Arendur, where he and his allies would be hired by the Reich to steal the mask, amulet, and tome of the King in Yellow. His supposed allies would turn out to be cultists of the King, but Khamsa would prevent the coming of the great old one by stealing the Pallid Mask for himself and leaving the amulet with the Illuminated, before departing into parts unknown. After the War Khamsa carried the Pallid Mask into the Land of the Fey, increasingly burdened by horrific nightmares and delusions. Aware that he could not bear the mask forever, he would charter a ship in the first port town he could find, making his way for Hauptstadt, the capital of the Reich. The Kaiserin told him to give the mask to Special Agent Shorden Hiem, who solemnly vowed to destroy it or lock it in their deepest vaults. Khamsa’s subsequent journey back to Catan would take him across the war-torn continent, from the orc-lands of Darguzze through blasted, ruined Aglazdere and briefly in the familiar land of Ragnarok before winding up where he began on the shores of the Final Empire once again. Once again, the Final Empire was at war, its hard-knock inhabitants in a bitter struggle to survive against horrific monsters from Atlantis, spat up daily by the monstrous seas. Khamsa’s voyage to the Isles would yield an eerie nothingness, with calm waters where Catan had once been. There were no signs that there had ever been an island there at all, nor any response from the sending circlet. Khamsa could only fervently pray that Hillary and Rae had escaped Catan and moved far, far away from the sea. Resigned to a grim and immortal life, Khamsa would join the knights of Ragnarok under King Bolgar’s command and wage eternal war against the Deep Ones of Atlantis. After the death of Bolgar by old age, Khamsa would be offered the the kingship of Ragnarok. He refused, instead suggesting that the knights crown his squire Ludwig instead. Similarly, he turned down the Black Blade of Disaster, Staff of the Psychic King, and Armour of the King of Ragnarok, remarking that not only did they rightfully belong to Ludwig, but that his Easlehaur blade and scorpion armor suited him far better. He did, however, enter Thunderdome and sit upon the Southern Throne, as was his right as the victor of the war of the Philosopher-Kings. When Shangare turned on Ragnarok, Khamsa fought Toranna the Fateless in the abandoned streets of the Final Empire's capital. Toranna was wielded Cordelia's Sorrow, the blade in which Tolumvire was imprisoned, but was defeated and forced to flee by the Red Knight. Khamsa's vampiric coffin is in the heart of the Thunderdome not far from the throne. If it were to be destroyed, that would mean that he had been bested and the throne had been claimed, and therefore he would have failed in his duty. Legacy (The Knight of Faith) Much like his one-time ally, Philoktia, Khamsa's life and deeds served to put the myth of the Philosopher-King to rest. Khamsa took his throne with low expectations - his fellow monarchs pitied him, thinking him a puppet; weak, barely a mage, soon to lose his throne. Khamsa surprised his contemporaries, who never considered that a Philosopher-King might give up their throne. They were wrong; there was precedent in the tale of Aglazdere's Grand Vizier-in-waiting, Yera McDonald, but unlike Yera, Khamsa would define his life by his deeds post-monarchy. If Philoktia demonstrated the danger in giving a crown to the the blackest of souls, Khamsa shattered the idea that a truly virtuous man would even want to rule over their countrymen as an ideological tyrant. 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